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USO-style show to ham it up for a serious cause

By Barbara L. Fredricksen and Arts, Entertainment
In print: Friday, May 16, 2008

Pete Clapsis, 46, and James De La Cerna, 27, get into character for the Stage West show on May 24. Clapsis, an actor and director at Stage West, has organized the fundraiser for the Wounded Warriors Project, which helps severely injured servicemen and women. He will channel Bob Hope as emcee.
	[WILL VRAGOVIC | Times]

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Not long ago, Stage West Community Playhouse performer/director Peter Clapsis was chatting with his new bosses at Access Healthcare in Brooksville when the subject of seriously injured servicemen and women came up.

Though many of the war veterans' health care problems are addressed by Veterans Affairs and other organizations, other, sometimes equally incapacitating problems are not: the impact on the families, the lack of understanding in communities, and the loss of contact with former fellow service members, among other things.

That's when Clapsis, the community relations director for Access, came up with the idea of getting some fellow Stage West performers to do a variety show to raise money for these veterans.

The conduit to the vets would be the Wounded Warriors Project — see woundedwarriorproject.org — a nonprofit organization founded by Korean War veterans to provide severely injured servicemen and women with the services that government bureaus don't. All proceeds from the show will go to WWP.

Clapsis rounded up several well-known Stage West performers — Dalton and Lynda Benson (who are also affiliated with Access), Dave and Terry Stenger, George Dwyer, Leanne Germann and James De La Cerna — and enlisted the Frankie Dee New York Orchestra for music.

The show will be held at 8 p.m. May 24 at the Stage West theater.

"This isn't just any variety show," Clapsis said. "It's a throwback to the old Bob Hope USO shows that entertained millions of servicemen and women during World War II, Korea and Vietnam."

Clapsis, as emcee, will sling a golf club over his shoulder and do his version of the standup comedy routines that made Hope famous.

Clapsis will join Dwyer to re-create some of the comedy shtick done by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

"Leanne can do wonderful Patsy Cline songs, things like Crazy," Clapsis said. Dalton Benson, an Elvis fan, will do Presley's well-known An American Trilogy (Dixie, All My Trials, Battle Hymn of the Republic).

The Stengers will do their version of Sonny and Cher, including I Got You, Babe.

Frankie Dee's orchestra will bring back memories of Glenn Miller and other big bands of the 1940s.

A special guest will be World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame member Jimmy "The Mouth of the South" Hart, who will do an auction of autographed sports memorabilia from wrestling, football and baseball, among others.

The motto of the variety show is "Bring your sense of humor and your checkbook," Clapsis said.